Page 10 of Lovely Deceit

“Mmm,” I moan. “This is so good.” Oliver peers at me warily, nibbling at his own slice. The pit in my stomach opens wider. “You’re going to have to stop looking at me like that.”

He swallows. “Like what?”

“Like I’m going to break.”

He blows out a breath, dropping his pizza on the paper plate that came with the delivery. He’s freshly showered and dressed in new clothes but shadows still cling to his eyes, tinting the blue darker than normal. “You’re the only person I know who can get over being terrorized within twenty-four hours.”

My body locks up at his words. I stare at my best friend tearing off a piece of pizza from his slice, scowling at me. I swallow and glare back at him. “Let me make sure I have this right. Are you trying to tell me how I should be acting right now? Should I be throwing myself on the floor, wondering what is my life? Do you want me crying over my stupid fucking ankle, Ollie? What? What would give you more pleasure in this moment?”

“Oh, fuck off with that. You’re not mad at me. You’re mad at them.”

“So.”

“So? What are we going to do? Just not talk about the fact that they tried to kill you?”

“Why? So I can cry about it? It changes nothing. It was fucked up. And awful. But it was a Trial.”

His eyes practically jump out of his head. “Are you shitting me?” He stands from his spot on the bed. “Stop calling it a Trial. Those men don’t want you anywhere near them, Edie.”

“Too bad,” I grind out. “Because we’re going back.”

“The hell we are.”

“You don’t have to. You never had to.”

“That’s right, I didn’t. I didn’t have to, but I did. I did it for you. You can be as careless as you want with your life, but I won’t. Tomorrow, we’re leaving here. You can take your pick of anywhere to go as long as it’s not Carnegie.”

I shake my head. This is so like him. “I’m going back,” I tell him, pushing to my feet, being sure to take all my weight on my good leg. “Nothing has changed for me. In fact, it’s only worse now. If they can dress me in my sister’s clothes and try to drown me in the same river she died in, then that’s even more reason to believe they killed her. The evidence is mounting up, and I’m not stopping now.”

“I can’t let you do this,” Oliver pleads, eyes glistening again. “I can’t. Don’t ask it of me. There are too many people who care about you, who need you here.”

“Yeah? And there are others who need me to do this. What they did to Dee was unforgivable. I need to find out who it was, and yes, I will risk my life to do it. I never saw all the tiny sacrifices that Dee made every day of her life, but when she died, they came barreling at me like an avalanche. Don’t ask me not to do this.”

Oliver growls in frustration and turns, heading toward the exit. I grab him by the arm, and when he spins, he comes for me like a caged tiger finally released of his shackles. His lips are on mine, demanding that I open for him. I meet his kiss like I’m suffocating for air. It’s a tangle of tongues and lips; a mash of teeth and hands.

He swipes his arm across the bed, and the plate holding his pizza falls to the carpet. Pushing my ass to the mattress, he crawls over me as I inch myself up to the pillows. In one nimble move, he forces my legs apart before settling on top of me, skirting his hand up my banana shirt and cupping my bare breast. “I need to be inside you.”

A wake of fire floods my nervous system, pooling in my core. I shimmy out of the bottoms, and he stretches the elastic waistband over my boot while he shifts to his knees, discarding the clothing over the side of the bed. After unzipping his pants, he forces his boxers down, and falling on top of me again, he presses in close. I move my hands under his pants that still cling to his hips, grab his ass and help him toward me.

“Mmm,” he murmurs in my ear. The head of his cock nuzzles my entrance. “Wet for me. Good girl.” With one swift push, he impales me. My mouth opens on a silent scream and he stills. “Fuck, love.” He takes in a deep breath as my heart pounds. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you? Your ankle—”

“Is fine,” I tell him. I push his pants past his thighs and then take another handful of his ass, not so subtly telling him to stay. He pushes up to his hands, staring at me from above before he swoops down to kiss me with the same hunger. It’s messy and raw and perfect.

No sooner than he undresses the rest of the way and shoves his clothes off the edge of the bed do I grab his shirt and work it up his torso. He breaks the kiss and yanks the material over his head, the weight of his body and his thick cock inside me a tease without him moving.

When he returns his attention to me, his eyes are brighter. He dips low, pulling up my shirt and kissing a trail between my breasts. With my shirt resting on my upper chest, he takes a nipple into his mouth, and I moan at the heat coming off him.

I work my hips against his, searching for the precipice that will only make me want to do this again and again. “So eager,” he whispers against my sensitive skin. “Do you want me to move?”

I nod eagerly, and he briefly looks up before teasing my perky bud with his tongue again, flicking it over and over. “God, Ollie, please.”

He pulls out and then slams back inside. The scream built in my chest takes my breath away. “You were made for me, Eden Astor.” The muscles in his body ripple as he holds back, lifting himself up on his arms again to stare at me. “I don’t want to think of a life without you. Without this.”

He drives forward again, and I can only clench the bedsheets in my fists since every part of him I want to sink my nails into is too far away.

“You’re my life.”

My toes curl as he punctuates his words with a hard thrust that has me gasping. This beautiful torture drives me crazy. “Stop teasing me, Number Five.”

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